In its own mild-mannered way, 'Primal Dream' sounds a death knell for New Wave-flavored power pop. Cool Blue Halo, Barone's 1987 vacation from the Bongos, was the first step. In recasting his songs in incandescent chamber-pop settings on that album, Barone lent his romantic melodies and winsome vocals a vitality that the Bongos' own records had lacked. Primal Dream uses the same basic quartet as...

I'm beginning at the end/There is a story I must tell and not pretend," sings Richard Barone at the onset of "Within These Walls." Barone, whose pure pop voice graced tuneful confections with the now-defunct Bongos, takes a noticeably downcast turn on this album. Dedicated to music journalist Nicholas Schaffner, who died of AIDS in 1991, Clouds Over Eden, even at its most celebratory, is haunted...

It might seem a bit presumptuous at first: a live solo album by a member of a regional cult band that is, shall we say, between record contracts. But Cool Blue Halo, by Richard Barone, guitarist, lead singer and main songwriter of the Bongos, handily satisfies whatever terms you might wish to set for it. Spare, elegant arrangements deftly recast the Bongos songs Barone performs on the album; cover...